Blog 3

I really enjoyed reading the article, "What's The Difference Between Boys And Girls." Being a mother of two boys and the only female in my home, I could relate to the authors comparison of living in a Toy's R Us warehouse. My house also is filled with toys guns, swords, and action figures. The line about the boy biting his toast into a shape of gun reminded me of my 7 year old. When my son isn't playing with a gun, he is making one out of Legos, or anything else that could somewhat resemble a gun. I've always wondered why little boys have that natural instinct to like guns and pretend to shoot people? I didn't introduce toy guns until he was about 4. I'm not a big gun person, and was hesitant when his dad wanted to get him a BB gun for his birthday. But of coarse, I gave in and he is more responsible when shooting his gun then I gave him credit for. I thought the Barbie vs Godzilla effect was interesting. My son has never asked for a "gender inappropriate" toy, but he definitely has played with "girl" toys when he has had a play date at a girl's house. I never thought anything of it or tried to discourage him from playing with them. I just assumed he was interested in playing with them because they're different. They're new toys that he never would see or get a chance to play with at home. I do remember one time he came out of the room with his friend who was a girl, they both were wearing princess dresses. He was about 5 years old I think. I looked at my friend and just smiled; trying to hold in our laughter we told them they looked great! It's not a big deal at that age, I honestly don't think it means anything if a boy plays with girl toys or a girl plays with boy toys. I knew males had higher testosterone levels than females, I didn't realize males produced 7 to 10 times more testosterone. Also, the other interesting thing I learned was higher testosterone levels are responsible and almost predictable for competitiveness. So does that mean my son's testosterone levels are shooting up before each soccer game? His personality changes quite a bit, and he becomes this focused, aggressive, competitive little boy when he is out on the field. When reading about girls having sharper hearing than boys, I wasn't surprised. I didn't realize it was because of the tiny hair cells that register sound waves and vibrate more forcefully. I always thought it was more of a gender or personality trait and not actually hearing involved. I always tell my boyfriend and son they have "selective hearing," which I still believe is partly true. Although my son is a play in the mud--ride my quad--shoot my gun kind of boy, he has always been sensitive, caring, sweet, and cuddly. Both my boys are momma's boys, even though my oldest would never admit it. After reading about this article it explains that there is a whole range of personalities that don't fall into any of the obvious stereotypes. "The complex of genes and hormones and neurotransmitters and internal chemistry that may influence our behaviors varies from person to person and is designed to flexible." A particular line that stood out to me was, "Any stereotypes we impose on our children--and, by extension, adults--are purely cultural, not biological. We tend to associate little boys with being noisy and rambunctious and "emotionally tough." According to science, it is the exact opposite, they need a lot of emotional support, affection, and one-on-one attention.

Blog 2

As a parent, I really enjoyed reading the article "Sense of Self." It's quiet intriguing how your little one's personalities develop in becoming who they are and who they can become later on in life. During my second pregnancy, I found out I was having another boy. Immediately, I knew he was going to be the exact opposite of my first son Dylan. My second son Dominic, never stopped bouncing around and kicking me, compared to my first son who barely moved around at all. Dominic is only 9 months now but even so, my prediction was right! After having two children I strongly agree that personality is present at birth. Dylan has always been shy, as where Dominic appears more outgoing already even at such an early age. After reading about Kagen's research, it has become more clear that Dylan has inherited to be more "inhibited" and Dominic to be more "low reactive." I was surprised to learn that shyness has a strong genetic component but even more so, that a significant genetic influence has been found for traits such as novelty seeking, a violent temper, and a a predisposition toward addiction. I have always been shy and introverted. My kid's dad is the exact opposite, very outgoing and extroverted. Learning about personality genes and personality traits, is it safe to say Dylan received more of my genes and Dominic more of his dad's? That brings me to the next topic I found interesting more related to nature vs nurture. I have always strongly believed that a child's environment, (especially starting at infancy) and the kind of parenting they receive reflects on the person they become. As genes do influence personality, they do not set a child fate for their personality. We tend to enter the world with our personality "volumes" set to different pitches, but where we end up along the spectrum from grumpy to cheerful or shy to aggressive depends at least in part on our early environment. "Very few traits seem to be pure gene or pure environment, but there are oodles and oodles of gene-environment interactions." According to the new NAS report, early gene-en-viroment interactions can set the tone for how a child adapts to challenges throughout life, but, "this early trajectory is by no means chiseled in stone." In the past couple years I've noticed my son Dylan has slowly but surely become less shy, and more outgoing. With that being said, I'm starting to wonder, are kids "locked" into a genetic personality destiny right from birth? How much does the environmental factor come into play, and isn't every child a different situation? A specific line that stood out to me was, "that if parents provide extra nurturing and a gentle but firm guiding hand in new or upsetting situations, by the age of 4 most previously inhibited children overcome their "innate" shyness." This statement does seem to correlate with my parenting and appears to apply with my oldest son. In conclusion, I am anxious and excited to watch as my boy's unique personalities as they continue to grow and change in the upcoming years.

Reflection Blog 1

I found the article "The Identity Dance" the most interesting. While reading about how DNA and life experience mold our personality, it made me think. How it can be turned on and off, or go up and down by other genes, also involving the ups and downs of everyday life, was something that stood out to me. It's something I suppose I never put much thought into, or knew anything more than the basic concept of it. Studies show that now depression is a combination of specific genes and stressful triggers; simply having the gene will not send most people into despair. With scientists rapidly discovering genes linked to illnesses such as cancer and birth defects, they now are also finding genes with traits such as sexual preference, aggression, and mental illnesses. I personally think people in society today are misinformed about depression and mental illnesses. It seems like the amount of people who suffer from one or both continue to increase. Shouldn't there be a way to catch the these specific genes and make these people aware, so possibly an illness can be detected early and treated properly? Although we can't predict the circumstances and triggers in our life that could potentially cause a mental illness, I wonder if more people knew they carried these specific genes, if the number of diagnoses in adulthood would decrease. I've worked with so many patients who suffer from various types of mental illnesses. For most of them, their quality of life is diminished by being overly medicated. Sadly, with the exception of counseling, their isn't much else for treating and maintaining most mental illnesses. Since scientists can't find a gene that directly causes mental illness, depression or any other mood disorder; If I had unlimited funds to research more on something specifically, it would be on mental illness or depression. I can personally relate to depression and anxiety and have suffered from both since a young age. After reading this information, I know realize it was really apparent I was depressed after a traumatic event in my life occurred. Learning about how low serotonin levels are a major factor in human anxiety was helpful and useful to me in understanding more of why I suffer from anxiety. Also, the serotonin transporter gene (which produces a protein that ferries serotonin between brain cells), was extremely informative. I was unaware there was short and long version and that people who carry at least one copy of the short version of this gene were more likely to have an anxiety disorder. The statistics proven on the short gene related to depression, were fascinating. Forty-three percent of people who carried the short gene who experienced four or more tumultuous events became clinically depressed. Also, people who have the short gene who experienced no stressful events also became depressed at the average rate as the general population. While only seventeen percent of the long gene people who endured four or more stressful events wound up depressed. With that in mind, does the nature vs nurture theory play a part in causing/preventing mental illness, depression, and anxiety? If you carry certain genes to make you susceptible to specific diseases/illness, are environmental factors enough to change anything or be prevented? A specific paragraph I especially liked at the end of this article is: The new science of nature and nurture isn't as straightforward as the DNA-is-destiny mantra, but it is more accurate. People have a really hard time understanding the probabilistic nature of how genes impact traits like depression" (Kenneth Kendler, director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealths University.)